Hard Money Pros and Cons
One very attractive feature of becoming a hard money lender is that you can make a living investing someone else’s money. That’s not to say that it doesn’t take any investment of your own capital to start a lending business, but most of your income will come from using investors to generate business. This means you can get into real estate and financial sectors without needing to have accumulated a tremendous amount of wealth yourself.
Since you are essentially a broker between the investors and the borrowers, you get paid upfront. You’re not usually the one investing in the loan. So, you have less risk than the lender does. If a deal goes bad, it’s your reputation on the line, but not necessarily your finances. You’re not responsible for paying the loan back to the lender.
Another advantage of getting into this business is that hard money lenders aren’t subject to the same set of rules and restrictions that banks are. Generally, that means you don’t have as much red tape to cut through and can negotiate more flexible loan terms. Hard money loans are usually processed and approved in a month or so. Shorter processing times can mean doing more business faster and making more connections.
You don’t have to be involved with real estate to be a hard money lender either. Hard money loans can be based on other assets like machinery, inventory, vehicles, and even shares in a company. This gives you a chance to diversify your business so that if the housing market takes a downturn, you aren’t reliant on it to bring in funding.
Hard money loan brokers generally operate on the local level. Having relationships with investors and knowing the local housing markets are both very important to the success of the business. With a startup staff, it can be difficult to build these relationships nationwide or to accurately read the ups and downs of the market. While this can be a very positive thing, it also means there’s more riding on local reputation.
Let’s be realistic. It’s not easy to be a startup company. Even though you don’t have to have an advanced degree or a banking background to start a hard money lending business, you do have to have a strong knowledge of financing and operations. Many of the qualities you need to be a hard money lender are the same as what you need to succeed in other startup businesses: hard work, networking, dedication, and planning.
A few startup numbers: According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, about 20% of new businesses fail in their first year. After five years, that survival rate goes up to 50%. That means that only half of the businesses that started five years ago are still operating this year. At ten years, the percentage has fallen to 30% or roughly a third of all startups. Those numbers encompass all of the country’s startups, regardless of the type of business. The biggest growing business right now is healthcare. Transportation and construction, however, aren’t looking so good. What’s the most common reason startups fail? Failing to meet customer needs. That’s not startling, considering you already know you need customers to succeed.
Don’t expect to open your doors and immediately be flooded with borrowers. Both investors and borrowers care about their money. They want to trust the company they’re doing business with. So much of this business is done by word of mouth and referrals that you need to maintain important connections. Once you have an established reputation, things should get easier, but it can be hard starting as an unknown.
Hard money lending is regulated at the state level. To operate legally, you’ll have to know what your state’s rules are and abide by them. Should you decide to relocate, you’ll have to understand and satisfy a new set of rules. If your business is located near a state line, you’ll probably want to do business in both states. In that case, you’ll have to satisfy two sets of rules at the same time.
